Jones Cranes
at Threlkeld Cumbria ]]K & L Steelfounders And Engineers Ltd 1915-1928 Jones Cranes Ltd '''1938-1994 '''Jones Revival '''2001-To Date '''Jones Cranes Limited '''was a UK brand for several types of cranes and mobilecranes all made under the name and ownership of K & L Steelfounders and Engineers Ltd from a large factorysite based at Letchworth in Hertfordshire midcentral England. This Company was very similar to the famous and larger '''Coles Cranes Limited their closest similar manufacturer of several crane types too until Jones were sadly gone in the 1990s but meanwhile they have returned with a new management and new ownership today. Production has restarted today. Company History Jones Cranes was started in 1915 by two Belgian industrialists named Jacques Drynn and Raoul Lahy.The pair had the capital to invest on something huge that made them relocate to England but needed external development to help their own business. They were originally known as K & L Steelfounders And Engineers Limited '''a crane manufacturing company who were the original owners and traders of Jones Cranes Limited. The business was later to became part of the '''George Cohen & Sons Group Ltd '''empire known globally as the '''The 600 Group a long established steelworks engineering concern based in Stanningley near Leeds Yorkshire with their head office in London who provided K & L with all the necessary mechanical and technical knowledge who later took over management and ownership of crane manufacturer K & L Ltd in the Spring of 1928. Then in early 1938 saw the original company name dropped but was renamed as JONES '''used for every single model of their mobilecrane and yardcrane machines made from now on all under the tradename of '''Jones Cranes Limited '''a brandnew designation for a long experienced cranemaker who were starting to become wellknown all over Europe and UK where sales peaked at very high numbers until the 1990s. Even the delicate 1930s proved good to Jones Cranes Ltd to be one of England´s best known and largest producers of diesel-mechanical crane manufacturers and exported their machines a bit all over the world with very successful export levels and were selling them heavily to all the possible markets they found everywhere. War History has described that as by 1941 they were producing over 1000 mobile cranes in the World War II for the Allies needs during conflict. These were frequently used in many locations for the British and French during the conflict including the unloading the first Allies barges to land on the beaches of Arromanches Normandy on D-Day. To meet the demand Jones manufactured 180 cranes in 25 weeks for the Army. For a time Coles Cranes were acting in similar way with the '''Coles EMA '''models. '''JONES CRANES LIMITED The Beginning and Popularity When Peacetime returned Jones Cranes Ltd were finally able to expand and resume their manufacturing life so they started to redevelop its entire mobilecrane and yardcrane model range using their external and internal resources both new and old. Several different yardcrane prototype models were made each of them using the KL letters, starting with one of the earliest the 1945 KL22 a 4 wheeled yardcrane with latticejib and a oneman cab for any 2 ton lifts that became very popular in yachtclubs and others with many hundreds of them sold. Around 1947 another new larger yardcrane on 4 wheels appeared called the KL44 '''for heavier 4 ton lifts that was another instant hitseller that found many owners for assembling yards and builders cranes these were also available mounted on just any British lorry of that decade. In 1949 another yardcrane the KL66 was developed and it was bigger with more improved cab this was very similar to the KL44 but designed for any 6 ton lifts and it was an alternative to the very popular '''Coles Argos '''yardcrane that was the nearest similar machine around that time and this KL66 was also found mounted on numerous trucks too. So all these yardcrane Jones KL-Series models kept them very busy manufacturing them well until the 1970s when production of the KL cranes ended. With cash flowing into the firm due to their healthy sales this now gave Jones a chance to develop another whole new original concept but werent able to because they never constructed cranetrucks before of their own. Management then ordered to their next door neighbours called '''SD Shelvoke & Drewry Limited '''a very long established lorry firm to build them a special 6X6 truck to use it as cranecarrier for their next prototype crane model using 3 axle drive. This was later known as the useful 1962 '''JONES KL10-10 6WD '''cranetruck their first original go-anywhere allwheel driven crane that was selling moderately well but suffered from the big sales champion and rival all hydraulic mobilecrane the famous and bigger '''Coles Hydra 4WD 4WS '''of about the same decade. This KL10-10 6X6 a completely new model was partially co-developed by '''SD Ltd using a six wheel driven crosscountry chassis, built with a new 2 men fibreglass cab, with new hydraulic crane controls within the drivers cab, offroad driving axles and tyres plus a new 32ft long latticejib and was able to lift any 12 ton loads. Almost 69875 models or so of them were sold with several improvements done to it until 1973 when its production ended. This was another successful first attempt at a new large model to have sold rather well and by the early 1970s Jones felt the zest to enter the modernized cranecarrier concept with crane configuration and entered another period of internal redevelopment for diesel-hydraulic new models using other heavy truck mechanicals available like Bedford, Ford, Leyland, Cummins, Perkins and Scania. JONES CRANES Starts developing a new Model Range ''' Another separate Northern UK company called '''Crane Travellers Limited, that are a specialist in making finished working parts for cranes and other construction equipment, attempted to buy Vickers AWD Ltd 'of Swindon in Wiltshire, the wellknown roadvehicle conversion expert, but '''CT Ltd '''never managed that early buyout because Vickers AWD were also owned by the giant Leeds based operation The 600 Group. Still Crane Travellers company had been in existence since 1971 and helped to build several components for numerous other domestic manufacturers mainly UK cranefirms and in 1977 Jones Cranes Ltd became their new managers and owners, both firms have worked together closely ever since as partners with CT Ltd as their mechanical and technical engineering division. Meanwhile by February in 1972 Vickers AWD Ltd was providing both Jones Cranes Ltd and small '''BHCC-IF Ltd '''with several large and new different cranecarrier models in alternative driveforms, these were designated as the Vickers-AWD V500 Series to match most of their larger longer Jones mobilecranes available that decade each of them were entirely redeveloped and relaunched for their new model range in the mid 1970s. This was the most advanced sollution that Jones was really searching for and these latest news assured that could join Coles Cranes and other UK cranebrands to face the growing competition. '''JONES IS REORGANIZED with great sales but then weaks and faces closure ' While Jones finally balaced as was Coles and other domestic cranemakes and themselves enjoying endless sales all over the UK together with several other European markets not all was great unfortunately. As the big UK cranemarket was naturally growing since the 1970s to the early 1990s so did the numerous other foreign mobilecrane and yardcrane manufacturers found the openmarket access and these could be exported anywhere and everywhere. The result was that many were imported mostly from all over Europe, while others from the Far East and US brands were entering our market too. That meant a sudden New Wave of hundreds of ultramodern all hydraulic cranetype makes and models to enter and invade the UK so this slowly proved to be fatal to some domestic brands and often disturbed the larger ones of our very own breed, though the only firm able to resist this foreign crane invasion was huge Coles Cranes Limited. While some UK makes were slowly collapsing one by one, due to the arrival of these new generation of machines the Jones company managed to survive the tough 1980s and early 1990s. Unfortunately by 1994 they were into trouble too and were closing their factory doors another similar fate that happened to the other makes.Sudden fierce competition of ultra new modern mobilecranes that totally swept the entire UK market and strangled our local construction machinery . '''JONES RETURNS and current brand management and ownership The name of JONES CRANES LTD is still around today when this historic crane company were successfully rescued and are currently owned and managed since 2001 by small Southdown Engineers Ltd 'who acquired them and reopened the long closed doors but still intact Letchworth factorysite where the original Jones Cranes works was and started reassembling plenty of abandoned models left unfinished remaining still there and slowly have resumed production but only Jones Crawlercranes because earlier in 1994 just before closure it was their crane output and some remaining mobilecranes left there have been finished lately. This Southdown Engineering company are a construction machinery engineering firm and crane specialists too that make and supply parts as well as rebuilding, refurbishing, restoring and repairing mobile cranes and yardcranes of several makes and models in active operation since the early 1970s. Their factorysite with headoffice are based in Albourne in rural Sussex and occasionally carry on general work needed on old and new Coles, Ironfairy and Jones models of many types. They also have set up a service network and a growing website for any necessary assistance aimed at customers seeking for help to their units of those 3 classic manufacturers. Their eternal rival but smaller crane expert called 'Iron Fairy '''returned in 1997 their revival was done by an independent South Yorkshire industrial engineering group who own '''BHCC IF Ltd '''brand. '''FURTHER MORE JONES Engineering Developments were made Finally in the early 1980s Jones Cranes Ltd also entered a technical agreement connection with a truck manufacturer called Lokkeri Rauma Repola OY Suomi of Tampere in Finland to supply Jones with Lokomo 8X4 cranecarriers with Volvo mechanicals and over 567 models were shipped from Finland to England for their final assembly at Letchworth. For a while Jones was also ordering new generation brandnew and reliable Scania TDI lorry engines from Sweden to power their heaviest and largest mobilecranes constructed besides using several domestic and wellknown powerful Cummins TD and Leyland TDI heavy truck engines both of which were the main running gear providers. Meanwhile in the 1980s Coles Cranes Limited already developed and made the new Coles Colossus HPT Harbour Port Towercrane, an enormous Coles cranetruck that worked both as mobilecrane and as a towercrane in less than 30min thanks to its fully new hydraulic capabliity for any of the two possible options.This latest giant Coles model then gave Jones Cranes Ltd new ideas in 1986 and after previous extensive experience producing harbour and port cranes built with crawlers and wheeled axles, there was time for them to develop something completely new. This brandnew model took around 4 weeks for development and engineering it the final result was called Jones 2200HLB. '''This was a special new mobilecrane on 4 axles, built with a new longer carrierchassis, a new longer latticejib with extensions fitted, with 2 new drivers cabs one much higher than usual and the other lower one with hydraulic elevating, 4 new hydraulic folding outriggers for up to 23 ton lifts and power came from a heavy duty Scania DS11 TDI V8 357 bhp truck engine. All these items remained on this massive and unique crane model, the largest ever made by Jones Cranes Limited. '''THE JONES CRANES LTD Complete Model Range CRAWLERS Cranes List * Bridgeing Crane 111 units built for the ministry during WW2 ordered by the British Army. * Barge Crane 180 units built during WW2 for the Allies plus the British and French. * Jones Iron Fairy MK6 (Non slewijib unit) * Jones 355C * Jones 565C * Jones 851C * Jones 875C * Jones 971C YARD CRANES List * Jones KL15 1930s A small 4 wheeled crane for any 1 ton lifts * Jones KL22 1940s A cabbed model that coould lift 2 tons * Jones KL33 1950s * Jones KL44 1950s * Jones KL66 1960s * Jones KL77 1970s * Jones IF18RT 1980s * Jones IF18RT 4WD 1980s MOBILE CRANES List (Some of these the last 6 are fitted with elevating cab) * Jones IF6M * Jones IF8M * Jones IF10M 4WD * Jones IF12M 4WD * Jones IF12A * Jones IF12T * Jones IF15AT 4WD * Jones IF15A 4WD * Jones IF18RT * Jones IF20T * Jones KL10-10 * Jones 355M * Jones 565M * Jones 851M * Jones 871M * Jones J880C * Jones 971M SHIP LOADER CRANES List (Often fitted with hydraulic elevating drivers cab) * Jones 355HLB * Jones 565HLB * Jones 851HLB * Jones 880HLB * Jones 971HLB * Jones 2200HLB Harbour TRUCK MOUNTED CRANES List (The last 7 models built in conjuction with Vickers AWD Ltd) * Jones Fleetmaster * Jones KL44 * Jones KL66 * Jones KL10-10 6WD * Jones KL10-6LO * Jones KL10-16M 6WD * Jones KL11-12M * Jones KL15-30L * Jones 35-40RT * Jones 461M * Jones 475M * Jones 495T * Jones 551M * Jones 561M * Jones 661M RAILWAY CRANES List (The Tourmaline was originally an IronFairy model but it was made by Jones Cranes) * Jones KL44 Rail * Jones KL66 Rail * Jones Iron Fairy Tourmaline JONES MODEL PHOTOS GALLERY JONES 565M.jpg JONES 355M.jpg AWD JONES KL10-16M 6WD Mobilecrane.jpg AWD JONES 35-40 RT Cranetruck.jpg JONES Poster with 1960s Models.jpg JONES Poster with 1970s Models.jpg JONES Poster with 1980s Models.jpg JONES 461M Cranetruck.jpg JONES 495T Cranetruck.jpg JONES 551M Cranetruck.jpg JONES 561M Cranetruck.jpg JONES 611M Cranetruck.jpg JONES KL10-10 6WD Cranetruck.jpg JONES IF6M Mobilecrane.jpg JONES IF8M Mobilecrane.jpg JONES IF10M 4WD Mobilecrane.jpg JONES IF10M Mobilecrane.jpg JONES IF12 4WD Mobilecrane.jpg JONES IF15A 4WD Mobilecrane.jpg JONES Fleetmaster on Bedford TK Cranecarrier.jpg JONES KL15-30L on Douglas Cranecarrier.jpg JONES KL11-12M on Scammell Cranecarrier.jpg JONES KL10-10 Mobilecrane.jpg JONES KL10-6LO on Foden FC6 Carrier.jpg JONES 565HLB.jpg JONES 971HLB.jpg JONES 2200HLB Harbour Crane.jpg JONES 851M.jpg JONES 871M.jpg JONES J880C Harbour Crane.jpg JONES 971C Crawler crane.jpg JONES 565C.jpg JONES 355C.jpg JONES IF18RT Yardcrane.jpg JONES KL77 Yardcrane.jpg JONES KL66 Yardcrane.jpg JONES KL66 Railcrane.jpg JONES KL44 Yardcrane.jpg JONES KL33 Yardcrane.jpg JONES KL22 Yardcrane.jpg|link=JONES KL22 JONES KL15 Yardcrane.jpg|link=JONES KL15 yardcrane *Several models are still operating in small boat yards, and at Heritage railways throughout the country. * The Vintage Excavator Trust have a Jones 565C Crawler crane unit on their site at Threlkeld, Cumbria, at the mining museum, but it is awaiting restoration not yet working. (photo above) * There are still 2 units of KL 44 4 ton cranes surviving in store in New Zealand belonging to the local railway company and used daily on trains. Some 120 Jones were bought by the B.R. used for general railway works. * Many Jones IF Series mobilecranes are used in warehouses and yards with several Jones 900 Series cranes models used warehouses, construction and metal works are in costant use all over the UK. See also * Construction Plant Manufactures our List * AWD All Wheel Drive Co. Ltd * BHCC Iron Fairy Cranes * Coles Cranes Limited * Cowans-Sheldon Limited * Crane Travellers Ltd * E. Boydell & Co.(Muir Hill Ltd) * F. Taylor & Sons Ltd * GCA (Grove-Coles-Allen) Ltd * Henry Cooch Ltd * Lambert Engineering Co.(Hydrocon Ltd) * NCK-Rapier Ltd * Priestman Brothers Ltd * Ransomes & Rapier Ltd * Redler Conveyors Ltd * R.H. Neal & Co. Ltd * Ruston-Bucyrus * Stothert & Pitt Ltd * Taylor & Hubbard Ltd * Thomas Smith & Sons Ltd * Vickers-AWD Limited References / sources * Classic Plant & Machinery Magazine External Links * Company website * Southdown Engineers Parent Company website Category:Jones cranes Category:Companies of the United Kingdom Category:Defunct companies Category:Mobile Cranes Category:Crawler Cranes Category:Engine manufacturers Category:Crawler crane manufacturers